Colorado's roughly 32,000 state workers need a 3.8 percent raise to catch up to their counterparts in the private sector , the state Department of Personnel and Administration reported Thursday.The state also needs to pick up a larger share of workers' medical and dental insurance premiums, along with merit pay, according to a letter from Kathy Nesbitt, the agency's executive dire...

No - this is wrong. You go by what the average total cost of ownership (TCO) is for the employee and the TCO includes the benefit package. If you include the benefit package known as PERA, State employees are making out like bandits. Their TCO is far higher than private sector counterparts. This is more of the same shoddy "journalism" the Denver Post spews on a daily basis.

Barney wrote:No - this is wrong. You go by what the average total cost of ownership (TCO) is for the employee and the TCO includes the benefit package. If you include the benefit package known as PERA, State employees are making out like bandits. Their TCO is far higher than private sector counterparts. This is more of the same shoddy "journalism" the Denver Post spews on a daily basis.

I was a public employee my whole life, working under plenty of contracts with zero raises and a salary far below private sector. My retirement pay for my entire career is a whopping $24,000. Despite that, I am proud of serving the public well and do not regret my career choice.

However, if you think I am making out like a bandit, I should be able to afford health insurance. But I'm not and I can't. I look forward to Medicare soon, if I live that long.

And the DP and State want taxoayers to fund a secure position in government and make their positions not only commensurate but exceeding a private sector that has suffered through the worst recession in eighty years.

Barney wrote:No - this is wrong. You go by what the average total cost of ownership (TCO) is for the employee and the TCO includes the benefit package. If you include the benefit package known as PERA, State employees are making out like bandits. Their TCO is far higher than private sector counterparts. This is more of the same shoddy "journalism" the Denver Post spews on a daily basis.

That's bull. Having both a IT work as contractor, full time for a company and now the state my pay is less that what I made before. Enough I had cut on various items, but not that much. PERA makes up for it, but its basically deferred pay. I like my job. I work hard but I can also except after 42 or so hours my weekend will start. Never found a good work/life balance in the private sector.

After I started working the guy who trained me left. Private sector job for more pay.

This is an absolute joke. I can guarantee this doesn't factor in the lavish benefits that public employees receive, and the fact that they probably make more on a per hour basis being that they don't tend to work a full 40 hours a week.

So, doesn't the state NEED to lay off MORE employees to CATCH UP with the unemployment rate in the private sector, since there so interested in how they correlate to it? Worked for Detroit right! Go liberals!

mxer wrote:Does this include their state pension that they don't have to pay into, free healthcare and no state taxes?? Gimme a break.

Actually, state employees pay 8% of their salary into PERA with the State paying a 10% match (I'm on the defined contribution rather than the defined benefit plan but the deductions are the same), pay a healthcare premium (I'm a state employee and mine is $96 a month for just me), and have state taxes deducted just like everyone else.

Unless the comparisons are published, everyone with any brains will question the methodology.

Democrats always produce studies showing that we should spend more and Republicans always produce studies showing that we should spend less. The governor is a Democrat. That is all we need to know to predict what the study will say.

Or they can publish the whole study and we can judge for ourselves. If they don't, we will know it is bogus.

mxer wrote:Does this include their state pension that they don't have to pay into, free healthcare and no state taxes?? Gimme a break.

Actually, state employees pay 8% of their salary into PERA with the State paying a 10% match (I'm on the defined contribution rather than the defined benefit plan but the deductions are the same), pay a healthcare premium (I'm a state employee and mine is $96 a month for just me), and have state taxes deducted just like everyone else.

I work for a very generous private sector employer, and they match at 7.5%. Everything else is whatever I decide to contribute, and I am responsible for investing in funds that will grow, or else I lose value to my retirement. In other words, no guarantee. I pay 3.5X per month what you do for insurance, and I am single, also. So cry me a river.

In all fairness, job security is surely worth something, at least 5% of salary perhaps as high as 10%. My wife is a retired teacher now, and also did some state service, but over the years her income kept things going when my construction business was slow.

marka82331 wrote:yeah, retention of these state workers is a real problem. need to throw some money at it.

ridiculous.

these people work for the state because they'd never make it in the private sector. certainly couldn't match their pay in the private sector. i would never hire one. poisoned by the worthlessness of government.

Yeah, and ALL blondes are stupid!

You would never hire one because you are probably a cubicle jockey.

‎"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." ~John Adams

Barney wrote:No - this is wrong. You go by what the average total cost of ownership (TCO) is for the employee and the TCO includes the benefit package. If you include the benefit package known as PERA, State employees are making out like bandits. Their TCO is far higher than private sector counterparts. This is more of the same shoddy "journalism" the Denver Post spews on a daily basis.

No that does count the benefit package known as PERA. It also counts health insurance that is LESS of a benefit than what many fast food managers get at McDonalds.

marka82331 wrote:yeah, retention of these state workers is a real problem. need to throw some money at it.

ridiculous.

these people work for the state because they'd never make it in the private sector. certainly couldn't match their pay in the private sector. i would never hire one. poisoned by the worthlessness of government.

WOW.What a horrible commentary. Then maybe we should pay more to get better employees. What a thought...

Denverclimber wrote:The private sector has no security and is getting decimated.

And the DP and State want taxoayers to fund a secure position in government and make their positions not only commensurate but exceeding a private sector that has suffered through the worst recession in eighty years.

Government is smoking too much of the wacky tobacco.

You must be smoking something. The total compensation of MOST government employees in Colorado is lower than what you will find in the private sector. On the other hand you get a little more job security and a fairly nice deferred compensation benefit assuming that folks like Rosen don't try to take it away despite your contributions to it all along.

mxer wrote:Does this include their state pension that they don't have to pay into, free healthcare and no state taxes?? Gimme a break.

Actually, state employees pay 8% of their salary into PERA with the State paying a 10% match (I'm on the defined contribution rather than the defined benefit plan but the deductions are the same), pay a healthcare premium (I'm a state employee and mine is $96 a month for just me), and have state taxes deducted just like everyone else.

I work for a very generous private sector employer, and they match at 7.5%. Everything else is whatever I decide to contribute, and I am responsible for investing in funds that will grow, or else I lose value to my retirement. In other words, no guarantee. I pay 3.5X per month what you do for insurance, and I am single, also. So cry me a river.

You forgot your employers contribution to social security (you know the thing that PERA replaces) add another 6.2% to your employer match and we will start talking apples to apples.

Something you might find interesting is by state statute ... state employees are not allowed to get a better insurance deal than the median coverage available in the private sector.